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With a new plant at the Kaltenkirchen site near Hamburg, Wiska has created space for further growth. At its heart is a fully automated material flow system that combines logistics and production. The automated small parts warehouse offers space for 21,500 containers. © Viastore

You can treat yourself to something for your one hundredth birthday - Wiska Hoppmann treated itself to an entire factory: the ground-breaking ceremony for the new company building in Kaltenkirchen near Hamburg took place in 2019. However, this was not just a gift to mark the company's anniversary, but the result of its successful development: the medium-sized company has grown rapidly in recent years. Today, with over 260 employees, the company is one of the world's leading manufacturers of electrical installation materials, maritime lighting and maritime video surveillance systems.

Björn Heyna, Head of Wiska Supply Chain Management: "In future, logistics and production will grow closer together." © Viastore

A fully automated material flow system was therefore to become the core of the new factory. Wiska enlisted the support of MyLeanFactory to work out the corresponding plans in more detail - the factory planners led by Managing Director Sven Hammann have a great deal of experience with automated warehouses and were therefore competent sparring partners for Heyna and his team. The warehouse concept was implemented by Stuttgart-based intralogistics experts Viastore. "As a medium-sized company, Viastore is a good fit for us and has already provided us with excellent support during the development process," reports Heyna.

The new logistics center consists of a two-aisle, fully automated pallet rack with 6,500 storage locations and a three-aisle automated small parts warehouse with space for 21,500 containers. Materials for production are stored here on the one hand and finished goods for dispatch on the other. Both areas are connected by a conveyor system that supplies two picking stations, two CEP packing stations and two replenishment stations with material. In addition, supply lanes for internal assembly are connected to the warehouse, as well as storage and retrieval lines, which are positioned in the production area of the building. "We have created a total of eight of these stitches," says Heyna, explaining the idea behind them. "For certain orders, the containers required for processing are provided directly from the warehouse on each branch line." The containers are then taken to the relevant production station. There, the worker removes the required material. Once the order has been processed, the containers are returned to the warehouse with the material that is not required. "This saves us having to pick individual items or count them when picking - which makes the process much faster," says Heyna.

Direct access to plant technology from the ERP system

The entire system is controlled and managed by SAP EWM. Björn Heyna explains why he opted for this: "We wanted the deepest possible integration of our ERP system with the warehouse technology and direct access to the system via SAP." This saves on interfaces and the system can be scaled more easily at a later date. Heyna: "In future, logistics and production will grow closer together. The material flow is crucial here. And the leaner the processes become, the more comprehensive the software has to be." Viastore works closely with Prismat from Dortmund to manage its intralogistics solutions with SAP EWM. The SAP Special Expertise Partner is a spin-off from the Fraunhofer Institute for Material Flow and Logistics and now employs around 150 people. "The big advantage of the connection was that we didn't have to worry about the complex part of material flow control. Prismat and Viastore took care of this between themselves, as the specialists on both sides know each other well," says Heyna.

Even though Wiska generally works as close to the standard as possible, the material flow control system had to be adapted somewhat. For example, a touchscreen-compatible user interface was created for the picking stations and expanded to improve usability. The good cooperation between Viastore and prismat was particularly evident when setting up the software at Wiska's new plant, as Heyna continues: "The Prismat employees came, installed the software and the system was up and running within minutes."

For smooth commissioning

When the warehouse went live, Wiska also took advantage of Viastore's concierge service: a special team accompanied Wiska during the commissioning phase, gave advice on how processes could be improved and quickly solved any initial problems. "It was also important to us that Wiska's maintenance staff, who would later look after the warehouse, were involved from the outset," adds Martin Ziemann, the responsible project manager at Viastore. The Wiska maintenance staff therefore accompanied the Viastore technicians during the installation of the warehouse technology. "They are now very familiar with the technology, identify with the system and can carry out fault analyses independently," Ziemann continues.

The warehouse went into operation on time - and at the agreed cost. Björn Heyna: "With our new building and the newly networked, digital and automated production and logistics, we can meet our customers' requirements in terms of delivery reliability, readiness to deliver and availability at short notice: We are improving the material flow and thus increasing our flexibility and service orientation." Wiska's Supply Chain Manager adds that the new warehouse is also scalable and can grow in line with further growth - options for expansion of up to 100 percent have already been planned. For example, the number of storage locations and picking stations can be doubled again - the conveyor technology is already equipped for this.

This article appeared in issue 6/23